Mesoporous carbon materials have received wide attention owing to their increasing number of utilities, e.g., as gas separation, water purification (i.e., nano-filtration), catalyst support, electrode materials, and electrochemical energy applications. The diversity of these applications can be related to different characteristics of mesoporous carbon materials, such as electrical/thermal conductivity, chemical stability along with high surface area and accessible pore channels of high volume. These characteristics can be obtained using appropriate synthesis methods.
In case of electrochemical energy applications, mesoporous carbon materials should meet two major criteria: first, an outstanding electrical conductivity for establishing efficient conductive networks, and second, setup of hierarchical interconnected micro/mesopores of high surface areas to act as ion channel routes and ion storage means.
Different methods have been used in order to synthesize highly crystalline ordered mesoporous carbon materials of high specific surface areas/pore volumes and controlled pore size, using different processing conditions and precursors by hard and soft templates.
However, despite all of such efforts, the development of highly crystalline powders composed of graphitized regions along with high specific surface areas is still a great challenge. There is, therefore, a need in the art for a fabrication method for producing ordered mesoporous carbon materials with high electrical conductivity and specific surface area. Moreover, there is a need in the art for a method for developing graphene structure within amorphous carbon matrix of mesoporous carbon materials.